Hope (House of wax x reader)

ᴛʜɪʀᴛʏ ᴏɴᴇ

At daybreak, it was windier than usual.  Meaning that the group of campers were awoken by the smell of rotting meat and death.  Everyone was complaining, but that just made them want to pack up and leave even faster.  Small issue.  When James tried to start the car, the engine stalled.  He grumbled as he got out, popped the hood, and began to poke around.

"What the fuck," he muttered.

"What?  What's up," Nick asked.

James didn't reply with words, rather, he just pulled out the fan belt, which had been split in two.  Nick stared at it, confused.

"That's a clean cut," Nick pointed out.  "Someone had to do that on purpose."

"No shit," James replied.

"SO WE'RE GROUNDED HERE," Alicia screeched.

"Well no shit," Lucas sassed.  "But we're miles away from the nearest town.  What do we do to get un-grounded?"

The smell of death wafted through the area, but the three soldiers were used to it.  Although, everyone else wasn't.  So, they were quick to call out the fact that something was wrong.

"What's that smell," Lizzie questioned.

"Something's dead out there," Lucas told her, pointing in the general direction.

"What if it's a person," Rita shouted.

"It's too strong to be a person.  Or just one of anything," Nick explained.

"Should we go see what it is," Alicia interrogated.  "What if it's something we need to alert the police about."

"I can go check it out," Lizzie suggested.

"I'm coming with!  I want to make sure you don't get killed by some serial murderer," Rita stated.

"You girls aren't going anywhere.  Nuh uh.  Especially if something is dead out there," Lucas responded.

"Um, Lucas," Elanie asked.

"What?"

"Alicia took them to check it out already."

Lucas looked up, and sure enough, his sister and her best friend was gone, right along with Nick's girlfriend.

"Shit," he cursed.  "Should we go find them?"

"That seems like the responsible thing to do," Elanie replied.

"James, you got the car covered," Lucas asked.

James sent him a thumbs up, and nodded.  Then he returned to working on the inside of the car, making sure the fan belt was the only thing that the guy messed with.

"Nick, you're coming with us," Lucas demanded.

The three wandered into the woods, when they began to hear shouts of confusion.

"Alicia," Elanie shouted.

"We're over here!  You guys gotta see this," she replied loudly.

The three quickly rushed over, finding the three girls standing at the edge of a pit.  Below, the ditch was overflowing with mutilated deer carcasses.

"What the hell is this," Lucas questioned.

"That's what we're trying to find out," Alicia responded.

Suddenly, a rusted orange pickup truck rolled up, right as James emerged from the treeline.  All seven watched as the truck backed in towards the pit.  In the truck bed was another dead deer.  The truck parked, and a scraggly man hopped out, and climbed up into the truck bed, and grabbed the corpse.  He hauled it out of his truck, and threw it into the pile.

"Hey," Nick shouted.  "You know that's illegal, right?!"

"Ya know, nothin's illegal when there ain't no cops 'round," the man replied.

"Yeah, that's even more illegal," Alicia muttered.

"Hey, what's the verdict," Lucas asked James.

"Fanbelt's the only issue.  But we're still stuck," James answered.

"You havin' car trouble," the man questioned.

"Why," Alicia interrogated.

"Well, my brother's got a gas station up in Ambrose.  Works on cars all the time.  About fifteen miles that way," the man told her, pointing down the road.

"Any chance he sells fan belts," Lucas asked.

"He does."

"Well, we can easily make it thirty miles," Nick announced.  "We can leave the girls here, get that fanbelt, and be on our way!"

"Hold the fuck up, what if that creepy man comes back," Rita questioned.

"I'm sure he'll understand if we're having car trouble," Lizzie responded.

"Ya know, I could take one o' ya's," the man suggested.  "I need to pick up Bo's kid anyways."

"You serious," Lucas asked.

"Sure," the man shrugged.  "I'm headed up there anyways, migh' as well be helpful."

"That'd be amazing, thank you," Nick told him gratefully.

The group decided that Nick and James should go with the dirty looking man, and Lucas should stay because the kids were his responsibility.  He'd never forgive himself if he left and then something happened to Lizzie or Rita.  So, he decided to stick around just in case.  The two men who were going to Ambrose hopped into the truck, and the man began to drive.

"You know, we never caught your name," Nick pointed out.

"I didn't throw it," the man chuckled.

"Well, can you?"

"The name's Lester.  How 'bout you and yer pal?"

"Well, I'm Nick, and this is James."

"Nick?  We got a Nick up in Ambrose.  Pretty popular kid."

Up in Ambrose, Bo had 'gotten ready for work,' putting on his jumpsuit and the weird gas station chain hat.  You were surprised he had managed to fix the hole in the leg and chest, and wash out all of the blood from the night you and Nick tried to break free.  But he had.  Once he was ready for the big moment, he went down to the tunnels to make sure Vincent was prepared as well.

Then, he got you into his truck without some sort of flashback or panic attack, and he brought you down to the gas station.  He had Vinny running around town, making sure everything looked as lifelike as possible.  Bo had sat you down behind the counter, telling you to wait till Lester arrived.  He was going to the shop, and instructed you to come get him once his younger brother got here.  He didn't want to risk you running off or anything.

So, here you sat, staring out the window.  Lester had made bacon before he left, and Molly had come around this morning.  So, the three of you gathered around the TV to watch the news.  The weather forecast said it was supposed to snow, but there wasn't a cloud in sight.

Soon enough, you heard the rumbling of a truck engine.  You looked at the front windows, and you saw Lester's truck pull in.

You would get out of here today.

You could do it.

May Nick be watching over you, and whatever sky bastard that hated you have an ounce of mercy.

A/n: watching the 2001 Jekyll and Hyde musical while I wrote this, with David fucking Hasselhoff as Jekyll/Hyde.

But since I love the original book, I've been thinking: I'm ruining the Wizard of Oz as a side project right now, so I'll most likely go to Hell.  So why not ruin another literary classic?  I mean, I got nothing better to do, and I'm not seeing a lot of stuff for any variation of these characters.  So why not take matters into my own hands?